Inner fire
by MarinaLilychan
Summary: A new girl, a new love, a new enemy. Summary sucks as always. Rated to be safe. I DON'T OWN THIS BOOK!
1. Isabel

**Um, I wrote this story months ago, and it's kinda confusing and jumps around until the end of the third shapter. I'm sorry.**

-Chapter 1:Isabel-

Somehow I have to tell Mum about my new gift. If I don't she'll wonder why I don't age past 18, and I'm not willing to go live forever away from society. But I can't tell her about the guard. Members of what once was the Order are probably still after our heads, so I can't just go out and show the public my gifts. At least I don't have to sneak out at night to see Arkarian any more. I got my wings! It's easier to use them then to walk.

Anyways, it's been about a year since the Order was destroyed and Earth saved from Lathenia's soldiers. I still can't shake the feeling that there are members of the Order still in our school though. Probably my sixth sense. I think I'll start introducing Mum to the idea of not ageing at dinner tonight, and go as far as I can without scaring her. If she deals well with my gift, then maybe sometime soon Matt will tell her that he's immortal. I'd love to see her face then.

"Hey sweetie." I hear a voice behind me. I throw myself into Arkarian's arms and hold him for a few minutes, never wanting to let go. I finally let go when I hear the door open.

"Hello, who are you?" Mum has just walked in, and it looks like I'm going to be introducing her to Arkarian now.

"Oh, this is my boyfriend Arkarian." I reply. She looks him up and down for a minute, noticing his long, electric blue hair and intense violet eyes. She gasps a little, then frowns slightly, letting her mouth hang open slightly.

"Wow" is all she can muster. I can tell she wants to say more, but is keeping her mouth shut. She's probably trying to figure out how he got inside. It's impossible to get into the house through anywhere but the front door. She's been sitting by that door all morning. This is going to be a tough one to get out of.

"How did you get in the house?" She finally asks. Arkarian and I are lost for words, and we exchange a worried glance. He bites his lip.

"Uh, I flew?" He decides that's the best excuse for now. She obviously doesn't believe him. I send my thoughts to him, telling him that he could say he snuck through when she went to get a snack. His nod to me is barely perceptible.

"Mum, he came in when you went to get a snack." I answer before she has any time to react. She thinks of this as a reasonable excuse, but now I have to convince her that he's ok. After all, he did just sneak into my bedroom.

"Hey, Arkarian! How's it going?" A new voice at the door asks. It's Jimmy. A member of the guard, and a friend of Arkarian, Jimmy is very useful when I have to go on guard-related business.

"Oh, hi Jimmy. You know this guy?" She nods in Arkarian's direction. "What do you think of him?"

"He guides with grace and providence." Jimmy responds with a smirk. A perfect quotation from the prophecy. "A really responsible person, you should be happy he and Isabel are together."

"How long have you known him?"

"Quite a few years, he's taught me a lot about history." Jimmy replies to her next question. It's a good thing he's here, otherwise we'd be up the creek without a paddle. Though Matt would probably disagree. Even though Matt's finally starting to accept Jimmy in our lives, he still doesn't like the guy much. I didn't either, till I found out he built many of the defenses in Veridian and built much of Athens for the Tribunal.

"Well, if you think he's ok, then I guess I do too." Mum says to Jimmy. She then turns to Arkarian and says "My name is Coral Becket, and I'm Isabel and Matt's mother. Where do you live?" Ever since the Citadel fell (a very sad event indeed) Arkarian has been living in his chambers in the mountain. Of course he can't tell Mum that.

**I have the first four chapters done, and I'm posting them all at once**

"I live near the mountain." He responds as if it's the most natural thing in the world. "I moved there recently. My old housing was destroyed, sadly. It was a beautiful place, and took many years in planning." I remember my first time at the Citadel, the room I entered. I remembered the mission I went on with Arkarian, in the room with the heart furniture. Arkarian glances my way, and I blush.

Matt walks into the room. "Do you have to be so loud Isabel? I can hear you in the other room. Oh, hi Arkarian." Arkarian nods a greeting back, and I can feel the small bit of tension still between them. Matt was always against Arkarian and I being together. That one time he bursted in on us I wanted to kill him. I was so embarrassed. He eventually apologized, and they are starting to form a strong friendship. It's about time. They both glance at me. I gotta remember to shield my thoughts with two truthseers in the room. Mum's glancing around, wondering what's going on. I know she said something, but none of us were really paying attention. I shield my thoughts and turn back to her.

"Oh, what were you saying Mum?"

"Am I missing something here? All of a sudden you two jerked your heads toward Isabel like she was balancing a flaming ball on her nose."

"Uh, no Mum, you didn't miss anything." I say. _Except Matt and Arkarian reading my thoughts_. I add silently, jumbling it in case my thoughts aren't screening right. They often don't when Arkarian's around. "Uh Mum, can Arkarian stay for dinner?" I ask hopefully.

"Sure, as long as you clean your room before then." She answers. She doesn't think I can do it. I can always get help from Ethan. After all, he can move objects with his mind. It wouldn't take long at all with his help. Or, I could ask Matt or Ethan to create the illusion of a clean room. Matt frowns and shakes his head slightly, letting me know he's not going to help. As soon as Mum leaves I have to go to Ethan's house. Now that I've mastered my wings it's easy enough.

"Hey Mum, why don't you and Arkarian get to know each other, and Isabel can clean her room in peace?" Matt says to Mum for me. I don't always like it when Matt can read my thoughts, but today it will come in handy. "I'll even fix up some snacks."

Mum looks at him oddly, since he isn't that nice usually. She says to him "Are you ok honey? You don't usually act so generously." Matt nods and she continues. "But you know, that is a good idea." She, Jimmy, Matt, and Arkarian leave the room and know I can use my wings to go to Ethan's house. I close my eyes and visualize the path from my bedroom to Ethan's. I use my wings and dematerialize out of my bedroom.

When I appear at Ethan's house, he looks up from his book and says to me "Oh hi Isabel, what's up?"

"Mum met Arkarian today. She says he can stay over for dinner if I clean my room. But, as you can see, there's only a couple of hours before dinner, and my room is a complete mess." He eyes me suspiciously, as though he knows that I'm not just stating this because I feel like it. He can tell he wants my help.

He frowns and says to me "Why should I help? You should have Matt and Arkarian help you." I can tell I'm going to need to make a point to get his assistance with this.

"Well, Arkarian and Mum are getting to know each other, and Matt wouldn't help me if I needed to clean my room to survive the night." Ethan smirks a little at this. We both know he would clean my room for me if my life depended on it. After all, Matt's whole purpose in life seems to be to protect me. I continue. "Anyways, wouldn't it be fun to practice your skills for a little while? I haven't had a vision in months, and my healing skills don't come in handy much any more. I don't save people's lives all the time. You still have the ability to have fun with your skills. Why not keep them in shape in case we find any more underworld creatures we missed last winter?" He nods at this point.

"I guess I can help a little, as long as I can come to dinner too." He smiles one of his goofy smiles. A couple of years ago, it would have made my heart melt. Now that I'm with Arkarian though, Ethan hasn't been too attractive to me. After all, Arkarian is my soul mate, and Ethan, well, isn't. "I'll use my wings and meet you there in a couple of minutes. I just wanna finish this chapter."

He continues reading, and I use my wings to get back to my room. I start putting away the embarrassing stuff before Ethan gets there. I tell Arkarian and Matt that he's coming with my thoughts. Matt hits his wall a couple times, and I can tell he got the message, and that Arkarian did too.

About five minutes late, Ethan shows up. He looks amused and says "Wow, you weren't kidding about this being a mess. This might take ten minutes to clean if we're lucky." And with those kind words he gets started on using his mind to move objects around. I offer him my green blow-up chair and help him clean. In about half an hour we're done. Ethan's exhausted, I can tell.

"Ethan, are you OK?" I ask him. He's slouching in the chair and his eyes are drooping.

"That's the longest I've ever worked with this skill in a long time." He replies. "I'm so tired."

"How about you go home and get some rest, and I'll call you in a couple of hours to invite you over." He nods and closes his eyes. I'm not sure if he's asleep or just visualizing the path back to his house.

"Thanks again Ethan!" He disappears, and I hope his exhaustion didn't put him too far away from his room, or in anywhere obvious to people in town. I leave my room to find Mum. I find her talking to Arkarian in the Living room. He's telling her about King Arthur's first date, and she's amused at the idea of him tripping over his own feet.

"Oh hi honey, your friend is so interesting. He's telling me all these stories almost as if he was there. It's almost as if he lived there then." _Almost as if?_ I ask myself. Arkarian smirks at my thought. I can't help smiling too.

In the end, it's Mum who breaks the silence. "Taking a break from your room dear?" She inquires.

"Actually Mum, I'm done." I reply, mentally thanking Ethan again. I wonder again if he made it back to his house ok. Arkarian shares a worried glance, but within a few seconds it's gone, replaced with a smile and a quick nod.

As we head toward my room, Arkarian comes up next to me. "Tonight we're meeting in my chambers. Make sure to get to bed on time. I hope Ethan won't be up all night because of his exhaustion." I nod, and we catch up with Mum. She's looking over every corner of my room, wondering where the mess went.

"It's clean Mum." I tell her. She looks up at me and nods, but seems puzzled. I have got to be a little slower at leaving my room next time. I imagine an hour would make her wonder less. I quickly add "Matt helped me." I tell Matt that that's my alibi, and I hear a knock on the wall. He heard me. Mum nods again, this time more convinced.

"I guess Arkarian can stay for dinner, but he just has to tell me more stories. I especially enjoyed the story of the immortals' war. I wish it were true. Imagine the adventure!" I smile and think. _You really don't want to be a part of it. It wasn't much fun really, and Ethan lost Rochelle._ I frown at these words. We were finally starting to become friends when Marduke killed her. "I wonder what it would be like to be immortal?" At this point Matt walks in, obviously troubled by my thoughts.

"Seeing all your friends and family die is not something I want." Matt replies to her question. "Though being able to live forever could be fun." I glance his way. "Or even just living for 600-plus years and still being young. I more wonder what it would be like to live for a long time, but still be able to die."

"That would be an interesting idea." Mum comments back. I can tell that Arkarian hasn't introduced Mum to that idea yet either. "Wouldn't it, Isabel?"

"If someone offered me that gift I would think 'Not ageing? That would be a dream! But watching my friends and family die?' That's what my idea of it would be. All in all though, the decision would be yes." Matt and Arkarian were both there when Lorian gave me the gift to stop ageing. I believe I was the last person he ever gave that gift to. Maybe King Richard though.

"You seem almost as though you've thought about this before, and had to make that decision yourself." I can only smile and shake my head a little. If only she knew how right she was. I decide to answer her.

"What if I did?" I ask. "And what if I said yes? Would I have to go live in the middle of nowhere, with no friends? Because I couldn't have any friends. My gift would creep them out. And what if I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, not even you?" She thinks about this for a moment.

"I would feel hurt if you had to disappear, never to see me again. But honey, if you had that gift it wouldn't creep me out."

"What if on my next birthday I stop ageing and didn't tell you. You would notice, and I wouldn't be able to tell you. Imagine my on my 40th Birthday, still looking 18. People would notice."

"Like this could ever happen." Matt rolls his eyes. I can tell I'm probably overstepping my mark for now. I decide to change the subject.

"Mum, can Ethan come over for dinner too? He says your cooking is the best he's tasted since 1805." I smile. I remember our mission to save a man who later discovers a cure to a deadly disease. He said to me that the cooking at the house we were staying at was the best he'd ever tasted, except for mum's. She smiles back, not knowing how truthful my statement was.

"Sure, he can come too. I'll make my famous homemade Mac and Cheese. Nobody can resist its taste." I nod in agreement. When Dad was still around, he used to eat it all the time. Mum makes her mac and cheese with a hint of lemon juice. Even though it doesn't sound good, it tastes better than any macaroni and cheese I've ever tasted.

The next thing I know, I'm on the floor, white light blinding my eyes. I hear Mum yelling in the background, and I put up my hand, telling her I'm ok. "Give me a minute." I tell her. She's practically screaming, yet she's not the one seeing what I see. I see Dillon, a friend of ours and a member of the Guard, getting mauled by a dog. Dillon's power is strength, but he's gotten so he won't use it with people around. He manages to get away and starts staggering in the direction of our house. Then I hear the sound of a person falling into the door. The vision is finally over, and I run to get Dillon inside so I can heal him. Somehow, I've got to get Mum out of the way, but there's no way I'll be able to.

When I see Dillon lying in the quickly growing pool of blood, I'm shocked. I haven't seen anything this bad since Marduke killed Rochelle. I put my hands on Dillon's chest and start visualizing the healing.

"What the hell is Isabel doing? We should be calling 911!" Mum yells. I look to Matt to make the phones invisible and tell her everything's going to be ok. Matt tears out of the room. Then I get back to healing Dillon.

About 15 minutes later, I'm done. Mum has just been watching in awe as Dillon goes from critical condition to absolutely fine. I know I'm going to have to tell her how, but I can't. She's not supposed to find out anything about the Guard. I'm kind of tired. I haven't healed more than a scraped knee in months.

"What happened?" Mum asks Dillon. I could tell her, but that would be revealing my second power. It was bad enough that I healed Dillon in front of my mum, but talking about my visions are another thing altogether.

"I was attacked by a dog." Dillon replies quickly. "A big one." I remember the dog in my vision, a large Great Dane. It hits me. Does this mean Lathenia is back? She can't be, both she and Marduke were killed.

Arkarian hears my thoughts. I look at him. _Is this what the meeting tonight is about? Is Lathenia back?_ He nods, but says, "it's not her though." Mum looks at him. A puzzled expression crosses her face. Thinking fast, Arkarian adds, "I was attacked by a toy poodle the other day while taking a walk. It left a mark on my leg until about yesterday." Mum's still confused, and I have a feeling it's about me. I had a vision, then healed Dillon in front of her. This is the first time it's happened, and it happened fast.

"What was that?" She asks me. "How did Dillon heal so quickly? Does it have something to do with when you collapsed right before that?" I shake my head. They aren't directly connected, so I'm not really lying. I have to answer her though.

"What? Dillon was hurt?" Matt appears at the doorway again. He had been running around the house making the phones appear again. Having a brother who can do magic is one of the best things in the world, especially when you're all in on a secret that your mum isn't in on.

Mum looks at him oddly. "You were here Matt, when he collapsed at the door. You may have run away quickly, but you were still there." She looks from Matt to me. "Are you two hiding something?" I bite my lip, and Matt shuffles his feet.

"No Mum, we're not hiding anything!" I say before she can get enough time to think about our actions. "Dillon was never hurt, you must have been seeing things." Arkarian nods in agreement. We have to convince her of this. Otherwise, we'll have to explain the Guard to her in a time where we previously wouldn't have. This is a last resort. Mum obviously doesn't believe us, and she knows that we wouldn't lie so outright if what we were hiding wasn't big.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" She looks at us, and we nod. There has to be something else I can say.

"We couldn't tell you something if we promised not to. Or, if it would possibly destroy the Earth. Or us." I tell her. I can tell she thinks that it was choice number one. That we promised not to. It was both choices in reality. I look at Arkarian, and he closes his eyes for a moment.

He bends down near my face, and whispers in my ear. "Neriah says it's ok to tell her. After all, she does have the right to know." Matt and Arkarian lock eyes. I can tell they're communicating. Arkarian turns back to me. "Matt says you should be the one to tell your mum. You've known about the guard longer than he has, and you've known her more than Jimmy or me." I nod in agreement.

"OK Mum, we have something to tell you. But you have to promise not to make us stop." Matt and Arkarian stand on either side of me.

"Depends on what it is." Mum says. I can tell she doesn't like the idea of us telling her a big secret that we don't want to stop. I have a feeling the guard is going to be needed again shortly.

"OK mum, you remember when Arkarian was telling you all those stories about history?" She nods, and I continue. "Do you also remember commenting on how it seemed almost as if he had been there?" She nods again. "Well, it's because he has. We all have." She looks at us with a look of shock on her face. I'm not sure if she believes me. I decide to continue. "You see Mum, some people were born with two, rarely three, skills. When our skills start to show themselves, an organization reveals itself to us, and we join. This organization is called the Guardians of Time. Our job is to go back in time to make sure history happens as it should. There's this other group called the Order of Chaos that tries to mess up history. There was once this bored immortal who wanted the universe at her fingertips. She discovered that chaos gave her this power. Her brother started the Guard, and that's how things go." I told her all about the guard.

She looks at me suspiciously, like I made that whole thing up. "It's the truth." Arkarian adds. "I've been doing this for years as well. Isabel would tell you more now, but this room isn't exactly sound proof. Members of the Order are still looking for us, and that's why I live so far away from town. My hair and eyes would give away my identity faster than me running around yelling 'I'm in the Guard! Look at me, I'm in the Guard!'" He smiles and runs around in circles while doing this. It's kind of odd for him to do this kind of thing, but maybe he's trying to get his point across. He turns to me. "Isabel. Tonight, when we meet in my chambers, I want you to bring your mum along so that she can see what we do. You are going to have to walk up there, because I can't get her into my chambers through her sleep. You remember the way, right?"

"Well of course." I respond. "I go up there almost every day to visit. That's like asking if I know the way to my bedroom from right here." I smile, and sit down. I've been pacing for the ten or so minutes it took to explain the Guard to her. "Has a portal opened yet?" I ask Arkarian.

"Yes, and it's in America, in the year 1302. The woman who's life is in danger will eventually, through her decendents, improve medicine and technology. Her name is miss Agatha Smith. It looks like three members of the Order will be there." He says to Matt. "That girl from Atlantis will be there. Oh, and one more thing. I'll tell you tonight"

Mum looks astonished, and says "Atlantis? You've been to Atlantis? Wow! When?" She seems to forget that Atlantis was just Veridian's rough draft.

Matt looks at her, not really wanting to discuss it too much. "I went to Atlantis with Rochelle and Ethan on the day that it sank. We had to make sure a certain artifact made it to the bottom of the ocean. It was my second mission. I saved Ethan's life, again." Matt's saved Ethan more than once, it's true. He cradled the TNT against his chest when it exploded.

"Again?" Mum responds. I can tell she already doesn't like the idea of Matt and I in the Guard. "That means you two could die too! Isabel, you said you almost died. I don't want you doing this any more."

"Mum, it's ok. Only about one in 1,000 of the Guard's soldiers die. And the numbers are slowly getting better with Isabel around. Without her, Ethan, Arkarian, and many other people would be dead. Plus, It's not like I'm going to die to any normal soldier. Not even the Order's elite can kill me." Matt says. To Mum he probably looks like a fool. Someone who thinks he's invincible. Well, it's impossible for him to die at mortal hands. Even I couldn't kill him, not that I would try. There were a couple times where I wanted to, but I don't have that power. Maybe my weapon from the treasury...

"Isabel!" Matt yells. I can tell he doesn't like the way my thoughts are headed. I admit they weren't exactly nice thoughts, but I would never try and kill Matt.

"Sorry, Matt. I wasn't expecting you to be reading my thoughts. Did you catch the 'not that I would try part?" He shakes his head. "You should try and get the whole story next time. I would never try and hurt you, Matt. Not even when you bursted in on Arkarian and I. I wanted to kill you then, but I knew eventually you'd come around and apologize." Mum just shakes her head through all of this. I turn to her. "Mum, would you like to go to Arkarian's chambers tonight so that you can see what we do?" She nods. "Great, so it's all settled. Ethan comes over for dinner, we all eat and then head to Arkarian's chambers."

Jimmy comes into the room and looks at all of us. "What's going on?" He says to us. He's noticed Mum's face is almost completely drained of color.

"We told Mum everything." I respond. "Well, A lot of things anyways. She'll learn more eventually. I haven't explained the tribunal yet, nor training methods. She's coming to the meeting tonight." Jimmy looks at Mum, and she looks at him.

"So, you're in the Guard too?" She says. "Wow, to think everyone in my house but me is part of this secret organization." She's obviously troubled.

"Oh, don't worry Mum, everything's ok. I'm gonna call Ethan while you get started on dinner, then I'll help."


	2. Rae

**Rae's chapters are shorter, hope you don't mind. I tried to come up with a realistic original character. As you can probably tell, I'm not that good at it.**

-Chapter 2:Rae-

Today is my first day at my new school in this town called Angel Falls. We moved here over winter break. So far, I haven't met anybody my age, but I'm sure that'll change soon. As I walk to the front doors, I see a guy staring at me. He's not too bad-looking himself, but I quickly look away and keep walking, feeling my cheeks catch fire. I hope we're in the same classes. Though I doubt I would have the nerve to talk to him. I turn to walk away. Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Hi, my name's Dillon Sinclair, and I'm in year 12, how about you?" I look at him. His eyes are so green. Like emeralds shining in the midday sun.

"My name's Rae Garrows, and I'm in year 12 too." I respond. He grins a huge smile. It's awesome. I feel my cheeks heating up again.

He grabs my schedule out of my hands and looks at it. He smiles again, wider this time. He says to me, "We have all the same classes. You wanna sit next to me?"

"Sure, ok." I smile a little. This guy seems to be interested in me too. I haven't had any guys show this much interest in me since I was in preschool. I blush again.

"Are you cold? Your face is all red." Dillon asks me. If only he knew I was blushing. I feel my face getting even warmer, and I nod.

"Yeah. Does this school have heating?" I ask. "I didn't bring a coat. I used to live up north, but my family decided this town seemed a pretty place. I've been inside since we first got here." He nods, and smiles again. I lick my lips. His eyes focus there.

"Of course there's heating. Come on, I'll take you inside. You can borrow my coat until then." I gratefully take his coat and feel its warmth against my skin. My face is still cold though. I bring my hands up to my face and wish it would heat up soon.

The next thing I know, my hair is on fire. I get pushed to the ground and I see Dillon smothering the fire with his hands. When the fire is put out, I get up. I notice his hands are bright red.

"That was really weird, your eyes glowed pink for a moment. Then your hair caught fire. The oddest thing was that it looked like the fire came out of your fingertips." His eyes grow really wide, and he takes a deep breath. He nods to himself, and says "I'll have to mention that to Ethan later."

I cock my head to the side, and say "Who's Ethan?"

"I'm Ethan." A new person enters our conversation. He instantly notices Dillon's hands. "I'll go get Isabel." He says and runs off. When he returns with this other girl, he starts asking questions. "Dillon, what happened? Does it have to do with your hands?" Dillon nods. I notice Isabel with Dillon's hands on top of hers. I watch as within seconds his hands are fine. My eyes grow wider.

"Wow, this is all too weird." I say. "First my eyes grow pink, then my hair catches fire, and then Dillon's hands are healed. I'm confused." I really am. I mean, it's not like every day this sort of thing happens. There was one other time where my eyes glowed pink, and my dinner caught fire. That was odd. My hands weren't even burnt, even though I was holding a flaming piece of toasted bread. My arms were burnt though. Mum yelled at me for not being careful.

Another girl walks over, her brow furrowing. She whispers something in Ethan's ear, a long something. I catch the words "Guard", "odd", and "power". I hope she's not saying I'm odd. She looks at me for a moment, then continues whispering. Eventually Ethan nods, and whispers back. I catch the word "Arkarian". I wonder what an Arkarian is. I wonder who she is.

"Hi, my name is Neriah. Yours is Rae, right?" I nod, and she continues. "You can join us for lunch today if you want. We eat in the far left corner of the canteen, away from the other people. One more thing," She pauses and continues. "Don't tell anyone what happened today. I can't tell you how, but it could endanger your life." These words haunt me. I hope they aren't going to put me in the insane asylum or something. "Don't worry, you're perfectly sane, just like the rest of us." She smiles, and I feel better. These people want to be my friends. At my last school, I didn't have many friends. Everyone avoided me. They said it was because I lived in the middle of the woods. All by myself, except for my parents and brother. Tim was always around, but Mum and Dad used to work all night and sleep all day. They are often on business trips. I still don't know them very well. I mostly take care of myself. I have to take care of Tim too. Mum leaves me money for food every day, and once or twice a month she leaves me money to buy my own clothes. She does the same with Tim, even though he's only 10. She wasn't even home to celebrate his birthday. She was on a business trip that week. I hear the school bell ring, and I know it's time to go to class. Dillon guides me through the halls, showing me where all the different rooms are. I notice a room that doesn't seem to have a class in it. It has the name "Mr. Carter" written on it, but the letters are crossed out.

"That's where Mr. Carter used to work." He whispers in my ear "till he was killed by demons." _Demons?_ Does this guy think I'm an idiot? I don't believe in demons. But, then again, I didn't believe a lot of other things, like what happened with my hands, until this morning. These people might have answers for me, and I could really use them. Noting my expression, he continues. "Don't worry, I didn't believe it either, but there's no way out of the demon pit except for wings, and Carter didn't have his." He frowns. "I was put there once, but I escaped. It's one of the worst experiences I've ever had." Is this guy crazy? And what was that about wings? Wings? I'm confused. Dillon frowns, and sees that I don't believe him. "Oh well, I've been telling you too much. Isabel's supposed to be the one telling you all this. She doesn't know it yet, but Arkarian told me." Well, there's "Arkarian" again. I'm starting to think Arkarian is a person, not a thing. At this point, we arrive at the classroom. I sit near the guy named Ethan, and this other guy named Matt. Apparently, he's Isabel's older brother. She's in year 11.

"Good morning class, I see we have a new student. Would you please introduce yourself?" I twirl a strand of my now singed hair around my finger. It's not likely anyone will notice, my hair was already brown anyways, and it's not like anyone really looks at me. I head to the front of the class.

"My name is Rae Garrows, and I'm in year 12. I recently moved from Northern Australia, from a small town none of you would have ever heard of. I have a brother named Timmy in year 5. I really enjoy sports, and having fun with friends." _Not that I ever had any friends since year 6 when we moved before_. I frown, but quickly change it back into a line. I'm kind of shy, so I'm not going to smile too much. I take my seat between Matt and Ethan, with Dillon right behind me. His demon notions creep me out, but I feel myself drawn to him like a magnet. It's as though I'm supposed to be with him. He slips me a note.

_Hey Rae, what's up? Meet Isabel and me by the front gates tomorrow after school's out, ok?_ I write back, _you kinda creep me out, but ok._ Ethan looks at me, and whispers, "well, you give me the creeps too. With those eyes. I haven't seen eyes that odd except on..." He cuts off, and bites his lip. I'm not sure if I want to know. Whoever it is must have nice looking eyes, like mine. They're gold, though most people refer to them as "yellowish brown". Matt looks at Ethan and shrugs.

"I've seen eyes as 'odd' as that. You guys are forgetting my dad. His eyes look kind of like that, only more gold, and less brown." I frown at this. The teacher, Mrs. Duglas, looks at us, and we shut up before we all get detention. I don't want to get detention in my first class at this school.

As we leave class, Isabel catches up with me. "Don't you think Dillon is a little odd?" I ask. "I mean, he talks about demons as if they're real. Is he sick?" I make my finger spin in little circles around my right ear. Isabel's eyes get really wide.

"Then you really don't know?" She asks. She's confusing me, just like everyone else here. "Well, today is just a half-day, which is good. I really need to talk to Arkarian." There's the name "Arkarian" again. I wonder who they are.

"Who's Arkarian?" I ask. She puts a finger to her lips, and makes a "sh" sound. I wonder why she's "sh"ing me.

"Don't say his name loudly!" She hisses. "People might hear you!" Ok, so these people are all nuts. I'm not sure I should be near them, but they _are_ being nice to me, unlike most people. Either that, or they're doing it to make fun of me. Then what about this morning? I frown a little. I go through the rest of my classes and head home to my house near the falls. Apparently, most people around here call it "the mountain." It looks kind of like a mountain, I'll give them that. When I get there, I eat my lunch and go into my new bedroom. Tim's school has a full day today, so I'm all by myself this afternoon. I lay on my bed and think about all the odd events. I take my comb and run it through my hair. I plait it neatly down my back. Even in the plait, it's longer than most people's hair. It goes about halfway down my back. I get bored and decide to take a walk. I follow a well-worn trail up the mountain until I get to a rock wall. There's not much of a view here. I wonder why people come all the way up here for this. I see someone walking up the path. It's Dillon.

"Oh, hi Dillon. Why do people come up here? There's not much of a view." I smile a little, and tuck a little curl of hair behind my ear. Dillon touches my arm.

"You'll find out soon enough." He says. "Why are you up here?" And you're not even wearing a coat again!" I shiver a little. He's right, I should be wearing something other than my school uniform. I heard that for a while, there was no dress code. Apparently, about a year ago they made everyone wear a uniform. My mum picked some uniform clothes up while on a trip to England.

"I was curious, and kinda bored. My little brother doesn't get out of school until 4:00. I decided to take a little hike."

"Well, watch out. One time Isabel, Ethan, and Matt got lost while hiking in the park. They were lost for ten days. I got lost around the same time, and they found me. Isabel saved my life, not to mention Arkarian." Apparently I'm going to be meeting this person soon. I'm still unsure whether Arkarian is a boy or girl, young or old. Oh well. Dillon looks at me for a moment, and I blush. "Let's get you back to your house before you catch hypothermia. You're already turning red again." It's nice that he notices I'm cold, even if he is kinda creepy. He still hasn't realized I'm blushing though.

I tuck some hair behind my ear. "OK." I say. We head back down the mountain to my house. Dillon's eyes grow wide.

"That's where Roh lived!" He turns to me. "She died about a year ago. She was shot by Mar...I mean an idiot who was trying to murder Ethan." Ethan was almost murdered? "But then he died that evening. Some say a curse was put on him for killing Rochelle." So, this girl's full name was Rochelle. "Ethan and her were in love, and Ethan was devastated when she died. They had just kissed for the first time. We were wrong not to trust her. We should have accepted her. They were more accepting of me, even though I showed a bit too much of my strength in public." I remembered how he had shoved me to the ground and had beaten my hair until the fire went out. I hadn't realized how strong he was. "After Rochelle died, her caretaker moved away. Rochelle's father had beaten her mum to death, and had almost killed his girlfriend before Rochelle stopped him and he went to jail. She loved Roh like a daughter. There was a time when Matt loved her too. She was using him though to hurt Ethan. It was her job, but she hated it. That's why she defected." Apparently this Rochelle person had a tough life, but was loyal to those she loved after she defected. Who knows what she defected against, but I'm guessing it was a good move. "She was even the idiot's favorite except Lathenia. She's dead now too. Her brother killed her, and she killed him at the same time. I knew both of them. I was Lathenia's favorite for a while, but I'm not bragging. She was an evil idiot too." I can tell there's a lot more he wants to say, so I invite him inside. He shakes his head. "That place still gives me the creeps, even though nobody's lived in it for almost a year." So we say goodbye and he leaves. He certainly had a lot to say. I notice he's heading back towards the mountain. I take some money and head to the store to buy a coat, since I don't already have one. When I get back, Tim's already home. He hears me come in, and runs over.

"Hey, how was your first day of school?" I ask him. He looks up at me with his large brown eyes. He seems a little tired.

"It was a lot of fun." He replies. "People around here are so nice!" I nod in agreement. "It's so cold though, I wish I had a coat!" I smile, and tell him to come with me. We go and buy him a coat as well. We eat dinner when we get home.

A little while later, I see Isabel and another woman heading up the mountain. I decide to follow at a distance, watching them. Isabel keeps turning around, as if they're doing something they shouldn't be. Whenever she turns around, I hide behind a tree. After a little while, it gets dark. Isabel and the woman get out torches and keep going. I follow far behind them, staying in the shadows. I keep trees between us whenever possible. When they get up to the top, I watch as the wall disappears and a small doorway opens. The woman appears almost as stunned as I am, but Isabel urges her to come inside. I catch a glimpse of a person at the doorway. I especially notice purple eyes, staring directly at me. They wall reappears behind them, and I'm left outside, in the cold and dark, without a torch. I huddle inside of my coat, but I still feel the cold affecting me. My body starts shutting down. My eyes close, and I can't fight sleep.

**In the next chapter, Isabel has her first of quite a few visions to come, and the hounds appear.**


	3. Isabel 2

**Thanks Reasonable!

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-Chapter 3:Isabel-

When we reach Arkarian's chambers, Mum is surprised. When the rock wall disappeared, her eyes grow to the size of watermelons. Arkarian is here to greet us. He stares outside for a moment, but then invites us in. I jump into his arms and hold him for a moment. His eyes are soft and filled with love. I bet mine are too. We go into another room for a moment, and kiss. He runs his fingers through my hair once, gives me another kiss, and we head back out into the main part of the chamber again. Mum is sitting on the ground, looking at everything like it's the first time in her life being in a cave. I grab her arm and pull her into our meeting chambers. Everyone else is already there. Arkarian produces a couple of hand-carved stools and motions for us to sit down. With greetings out of the way, he looks to Matt. Oh great, he's leading another meeting. Arkarian coughs into his hand and I shield my thoughts.

"As you all might have guessed, the Order is back. Lathenia's son, Laeolos, has taken the throne. Like his mother, he is afraid of fire. My cousin will not be stopped easily, as he knows as much as she did about us. But don't worry, for we have a new member of the Guard soon to be an apprentice. Many of you have already met her. Her first power to reveal itself is the ability to make fire at will, which will be a valuable asset to our fight."

I stand up. "Who will be her trainer?" Probably Ethan or Arkarian. Perhaps even Shaun or Jimmy. Matt nods.

"I can see where you are coming from with that thought, but no. It won't be Ethan, Arkarian, Shaun, or Jimmy." He takes a deep breath. "It has been decided that you, Isabel, will be her trainer." Wow! That's great! I can't wait to start training her! "One more thing though, Isabel. You only have a month to train her." A month? This is going to be way too short! How am I going to do it? "Remember, Ethan didn't even have three weeks to train you, and you saved your first mission from being a complete failure. We know you can do it, that's why we picked you. Plus, you deserve it. Without you, we'd be lost." I nod at this. "Your new apprentice is Rae, I believe you've met her already." I nod, remembering how she thought Dillon was crazy. "Start training her as soon as possible." I nod.

"I'll start tomorrow after school." I answer. Mum is confused by all of this. I tell her. "There are three levels in the guard: apprentice, trainer, and master. Everyone starts out as an apprentice, and the master is the highest rank. Arkarian is a master, I am a trainer, and Rae is an apprentice, well, she will be soon." Mum nods. "So, we're going to 1302, right?" Matt nods. After this, the meeting is over. Dillon decides to walk home with me and my mum. When we leave Arkarian's chambers, I notice someone lying on the ground next to the door. Dillon's eyes get wide.

"It's Rae! We have to get her home, she must be freezing! At least she's wearing a coat now." He lifts her up into his strong arms and starts running down the mountain, and Mum and I follow.

"Do you know where to go?" I ask him. He nods and keeps running until we get to Rochelle's old house. He knocks on the door, and a young boy answers.

"We need to get Rae inside, she's suffering from hypothermia!" He yells. The boy moves out of the way and we run inside. Dillon places her on the couch, and I can't help noticing how blue her lips are. "Heal her, Isabel!" He yells. I nod and get right to work. Her heart is beating slowly, but it's still there. I get it beating faster, and Dillon gets blankets on her. I nod in appreciation. The boy is still watching Rae.

"Who are you?" I ask him. He has medium length, mousy brown hair in a mushroom cut. His eyes are large and brown.

"I'm Rae's brother Tim." He answers. He's staring at her again, his eyes full of tears. He probably thinks he's going to lose her.

"She's going to be all right, don't worry." I say to him. "Look, she's stirring. See?" He nods and smiles, relieved to see his sister returning to consciousness. Dillon looks even more relieved. I haven't seen him like this since he had that crush on Neriah.

As Rae wakes up, she looks around. She sees Dillon and blushes. Wow, those two are crushing on each other and haven't even noticed. She sees me. "Isabel, what happened? I saw the rock disappear, I saw a person, and is that your Mum?" She's still a little bit groggy, and I keep working to get her heart back to proper rate and getting her cells working again. She moves a little. "What are you doing? It tickles a little, but it feels good." She says.

"I'm making you well again. What were you doing up there on the mountain at this time of night?" I ask her. She obviously doesn't feel comfortable answering, but I can't help her.

"I was curious about where you and...it's your mum, right?" I nod. "I was curious about where you were going." She's much more awake now, and keeping her mouth shut about her previous mention of the wall. I can tell she's disturbed.

"What you saw with the wall did happen. You weren't hallucinating. I'll come here tomorrow morning, and we can walk to school together and talk about this. But don't tell anyone else, it's a secret." She nods, but now I have to worry about her brother. But he was too busy trying to catch a bat that had gotten into the house. I notice that there's energy coming out of it that could only be from Matt. I smile, and thank him. He flies around my head a couple of times, and flies out the door, Tim following him. Mum looks as surprised as Rae.

"What was that?" They ask at the same time. Mum would be a bit surprised at first about Matt's magical abilities, so I shake my head.

"Oh, I thought that was a flying fox, did it look different to you?" Mum seems a little skeptical, but Rae is ok with that. Living up north, she obviously doesn't know that around here bats hibernate. I'll apologize tomorrow. I look at Rae, checking to see if I can tell her strengths. She's too tired right now to tell. "Are you ok now?" She nods. I'm going to have to teach her how to use her hands' heat powers before a similar accident takes place. "It's not wise to go hiking without a torch." She nods and seems a bit embarrassed. Dillon is obviously more worried than I am. She's fully healed, but Dillon obviously has it bad for her. "Well guys, we'd better let Rae get some rest, she had an interesting day. Oh Rae, one more thing." She looks at me. "If you don't mind my asking, how good are you at history?"

She seems surprised, and seems to be deciding whether or not to answer. "I'm a B- student in history, why?"

"Because, you'll be an A student by the time we're done with you." I smile, and we leave her to think about the events of today. I wonder how easy it will be to teach her all of the necessary skills. I bet it will be hard enough to even convince her that all of this is real. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I convinced Mum a little while ago.

I hear a sound in the bushes. I listen carefully, and look out through the woods, shining my torch in all directions. If anyone's going to spot the maker of the sound, it'll be me. After all, I have the ability to see in any light. Of course Mum doesn't know that. Then I see it. A large Great Dane, watching us with its silver eyes. I get between it and Mum and pull a dagger out of my boot. Dillon gets on the other side of me and does the same. I then remember I have my light sword in my pocket. I pull that out and put the dagger back. Mum seems surprised to see me with a dagger and a bar thing. I close my eyes and concentrate long enough for a beam of light to come out of the handle. Mum shields her eyes for a moment. Dillon doesn't appear to have his weapon, originally meant for Rochelle, with him. With more light, I see the other dogs, seven in all. They look hungry. If only Matt were here!

Suddenly, he appears in front of me. "Matt! You're here! Do you see..." He nods and closes his eyes for a moment. The next thing we know, the air is alive with fire. Mum, Dillon, Matt, and I are inside of a barrier. The dogs howl and run off into the woods. The fire disappears. "Thanks Matt! You saved us!" Mum didn't see more than just the first dog. Hopefully, she thinks that there was only one. We hurry home, and Matt stays with us this time, constantly looking and listening for the hounds to return. We all are. I invite Dillon to stay the night at our house. He gratefully accepts. It's not safe for anyone to be outside alone with those hounds around. I keep my sword drawn and light lightly, just in case. After all, I only need a drop of light to see everything. We get home and Dillon falls asleep on the couch. Mum goes into her room, and Matt and I head to our rooms. The hounds are definitly back. I ask Matt to watch over Mum tomorrow. After all, they did see her with us. That puts her in danger. Rae is also in danger. We were attacked almost right outside her door. I need to go to make sure she's ok. I tell Matt where I'm going, and I use my wings to get into her living room. I see her sitting there with the TV on. But she's not watching anything. She instantly notices me as I materialize in front of her.

"Isabel! How'd you do that? What are you doing here? What are you, a ghost?" She's panicking. I have got to remember not to do that to my apprentices any more.

"Sorry, but I had to make sure you were all right. No, I'm not a ghost. I materialized here. I saw some large Great Danes outside your house on my way home." Suddenly Dillon appears next to me. Now Rae is even more scared. "Neither is Dillon. Those dogs are evil; the servants of an evil immortal. They would have attacked us, except Matt saved us. Well, I probably could have saved us too. Oh yeah, where's Tim?"

"In his room, why?" Rae is obviously more scared than ever. She won't have to worry though, because we'll protect her.

"He can't hear what I'm about to say. Rae, you have all the qualifications to join the Guard. We guard time. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it. Some people are born with powers, amazing beyond belief. You are coming into your powers, Rae. Remember this morning, when your hair caught fire?" She nods. "You were wishing you could warm your face, weren't you?" She nods again. "Just as I thought. That's the way it was with my healing powers too. Dillon said your eyes glowed pink and the fire came out of your fingertips, and your hands weren't burned. Glowing eyes is odd, and would creep Ethan out even more. He's a part of the Guard too. Earlier, when you followed me up the mountain, I was heading to Arkarian's chambers. But anyways, our organization has to get started again. A crazy immortal wants the world at his fingertips, and uses chaos to do so." I explain the Order to her. "We were summoned to find out about a new mission I'll be going on. I get to go to the year 1302, to America. I was also given an apprentice, someone I can teach the ways of the Guard to. That person is you, Rae. Are you ready to fulfill your destiny?" She looks at me. She doesn't believe me. I've got to prove it. I bite my lip. I have an idea. "Turn off the lights so that you can't see, write a letter on a piece of paper, and show me while the lights are still off. One of my gifts is being able to see in any light." She does as I suggest, and I get it correct. She turns the light back on, but I can tell she still doesn't believe me. "How else would you explain what happened today?"

She nods and says, "Ok, I'll give it a shot. But if you are only doing this as a cruel prank..." Dillon looks around for a heavy object. He notices a heavy chair. He lifts it easily, like it was just a pillow. Her eyes grow large and she says "OK, I believe you! Put the chair down!" Dillon puts the chair down.

"Good, then I'll bring you to Arkarian's chambers tomorrow. Can I stay at your house tonight, to make sure you stay safe, because those dogs were less than an eighth of a kilometere from your house." She nods, and I send my thoughts to Matt and Arkarian. I call my house to tell Mum, but she apparently went right to sleep. She's had a stressful day, I can't blame her. Jimmy says if she asks he'll tell her.

I thank him and fall asleep, but it's not a peaceful one. I have a dream, or a vision. Not sure which. I see Rae running through the woods, being chased by the hounds. Dillon runs over and single-handedly beats them all, but he's injured. I see myself going over to heal him. Eventually he's healed, but now I have to heal Rae. She's not as badly injured, but it still takes me a while to heal her. Some of the trees she ran past are on fire, and the dogs run from the fire. I wake up to see Rae in front of me, obviously worried.

"Are you OK? You were screaming about dogs, and Dillon, and fire." I think about it for a moment, and nod. It was definitly a vision. I have to warn everyone! I grab the phone and start dialing my home phone. Rae is confused. "Why are you calling someone this late? It's almost midnight, and we have school in the morning.

"One of my skills is having visions of the past and future. I think I just had one. I have to get hold of Dillon." The phone rings a few times, but nobody answers. On the fifth ring, Matt answers.

"You had a vision, didn't you Isabel? I saw it too. Are you ok?" I tell him I did have a vision, and I'm ok, and we say goodbye. I tell Rae we'll start our training after school, and to meet Dillon and I by the gates to the school grounds, and she nods. I tell her to get some sleep, and I do the same.

The next morning, I'm very tired. I quickly use my wings to go home and grab my stuff. I grab my uniform, hairbrush, and an apple. I then go back to Rae's

"How long will it take before that doesn't surprise me?" She asks. I start running my brush through my hair.

"Who knows? It took me a while to get used to seeing Ethan use his wings." I explain what wings are, and she nods. I put my hair in a high ponytail and start eating my apple. After that, I put on my uniform. Matt, Ethan, and Dillon appear at the door shortly after.

"Wow Isabel, you're already ready." Matt says. I usually sleep in, but I've got an apprentice now and can't afford to. I glare at him. He gets the point.

"Oh common Isabel, Matt was just trying to have some fun." Ethan says. "At least I thought it was funny." I glare at him too. I'm not exactly in a good mood this morning. He obviously doesn't know that this house used to be Rochelle's. I hear the bus pull up in front of the school, and we all get on. I remind Rae not to mention any of what happened yesterday to anyone. She nods, and we go to our classes.


	4. Rae 2

**This is likely the last chapter for a few months. I just wanted to post this because I figured I might as well get around to it at some point.**

-Chapter 4:Rae-

It's amazing how much life can change in 24 hours. I have friends, and I'm going to be part of this awesome group! We get to protect history. Isabel's going to train me this afternoon, since we have another half-day. Tim's got a full day ahead of him, and I told him I'm spending the day with friends. Mum and Dad are still on their business trip. I wonder what it will be like to go back in time. I hope it doesn't hurt.

"Oh don't worry about anything, I've been doing this for years." Isabel tells me. "Ethan's been doing it since he was four, though his first mission wasn't until he was five." I find it hard to see a little five-year-old saving history. Apparently, this Arkarian guy was Ethan's trainer, and he trained Isabel. "It's a lot of fun. I saved Ethan's butt on my first mission. Someone tried to wake him up. If you're on a mission and someone tries to wake you up you get sick, and could even die. Ethan was busy puking, so I had to beat the member of the order who was trying to assassinate someone. I managed to save the guy's life, and things were ok. In fact, when I was initiated I started with a blue sash, which shows member status. Normally it would be white. The rest of your robe will definitely be white. Black is dishonour, and purple is loyalty." Wow, Isabel has a lot to say. "Well, that's enough for right now, I'll tell you about the Citadel later. All I can tell you now is that it fell from the sky last winter and has been rebuilt recently." I wonder what the Citadel is. I guess I'll find out later.

After school is over, we head to my house to get supplies. We bring torches, hot chocolate in a mug, candy bars, apples, extra clothes, a couple of swords from Isabel's house, and a rope. The swords look really old, I bet they're from medieval times. One of them has a golden handle, and Isabel's holding that one. She also shows me how to stick a dagger in my boot without hurting myself. I thank her, and we start up the mountain. Apparently, we're going to go see Arkarian, then start my training. Isabel pulls out a map. She points to a spot near what used to be a lake.

"That's where we're training. The lake was used to flood the city of Veridian, but Jimmy's working on fixing the hole in the bottom of the lake so it will fill again." She says. I have no idea who Jimmy is. "Jimmy is my Mum's boyfriend, and protector of our family." Isabel tells me when she notices my confused expression. "Also, Veridian is like Atlantis, only more advanced. Only members of the Guard and the Order know of it, and it's filled with water now too. Matt and Ethan and Rochelle saw Atlantis one time, on the day it sank. Everything was very chaotic, but things worked out."

At this point, we arrive at the rock wall again. The wall opens, just like last night. I'm not quite as surprised, and quickly follow Isabel inside. There's a huge cave here, with many rooms coming off of the first. Isabel leads me into a large chamber, and that's when I meet Arkarian. His long blue hair falls around his shoulders, and his purple eyes are not something I've ever seen before. He looks kind of odd.

He smiles when he sees Isabel. She runs into his arms and they hold each other for a moment, and he whispers something in her ear. She nods and looks at me. "Arkarian is a truthseer, that means he can hear your thoughts." I cringe at this thought. He's probably mad at me for thinking of him as "kind of odd."

He smiles and shakes his head. "Hey, you didn't know. I'm used to it. All the new members of the Guard think that. Don't worry about it." He looks back at Isabel, and he smiles again. She blushes. "Isabel, Rae has a lot to learn before her first mission. I know you can do it, especially now that your mother knows about you being in the Guard." Isabel nods, and Arkarian turns to look at me again. "Let's first find out what you can do. Do you know any Karate?" I nod. I'm very close to being a black belt. He nods at this. "Do you do any sports?" I think openly of all the sports I'm in. Football, Hockey, Baseball, Rugby, Rock climbing, Roller skating, Weight lifting, Track... "Ok, you obviously do a lot of sports. Do you know how to wield a sword?" I shake my head. I never had a chance to learn how to use a sword. I would love to though. "Ok then, we'll start there. Isabel, You should train in my chambers today, it's chilly out, well below freezing." Isabel nods, and Arkarian leads us to another large room. Isabel gives me one sword, while she takes the one with the golden blade. It's a beautiful sword.

"Arkarian gave this sword to me a couple of years ago; he's had it for almost all his life. He said that 600 years is enough to tire any relationship, even that of a man with his sword." For some reason, the idea of Arkarian being over 600 years old doesn't bother me as much as it would have even a couple of days ago.

She shows me how to hold the sword. It's heavier than some weights I've worked with, but still not too bad. She teaches me some skills, and I learn them. It takes me about 30 minutes to learn each one. By the time I'm done, I've learned about 10 or so ways to handle a sword. Isabel smiles.

"OK, tonight I want you to work on your heat. But hold your fingers over candlewicks and not your hair, nobody's gonna be there to put the fire out for you." I smile and nod. This is amazing! I've never learned so much in one day! I ask if Arkarian has any candles I can practice on before I leave, but Isabel said I should get home before I'm missed. I doubt anyone other than Tim would notice. I'm almost always home when he is. He's going to find it odd that all of a sudden I have a lot of friends. It's cool that these people trust me. Even though I want to try the candle thing tonight, I really should get some sleep. I'm more tired than that time I ran a ten-mile marathon in an hour. Isabel walks me home. She's constantly looking around.

"Why do you do that? Are we doing something we shouldn't be?" I ask. She stops and listens for a moment, and I think she isn't going to answer my question.

"Members of the Order might be anywhere. Dillon used to be a member, but he defected and joined us, and helped us win the battle last year." I nod at this, though I'm still very confused. Tomorrow Isabel's going to be at my house around 8:00, since we don't have school. Tim usually sleeps until almost noon if he doesn't have to wake up early. I'll set my alarm for 6:30, and that gives me half an hour to practice, and an hour to get ready.

When we get to my house, I thank Isabel and walk inside. Tim comes over to me. "Wow Rae, you look exhausted! What did you do today?" I smile at him. He's so innocent, yet I can't tell him what I was doing.

"Isabel and I spent the afternoon and evening doing sports. She's a black belt in Karate. She taught me some moves and told me where I can find a sensei. Now I'm gonna eat dinner and go to bed. Isabel's meeting me at 8:00 tomorrow morning." Tim nods and I go to make dinner.

When dinner is done, I go to sit on my front porch. It's chilly out, but I don't care. The sky is quickly darkening, as it often does in winter. I enjoy time to myself. I sit outside for a little while, but decide to head inside, since I'm getting a little chilly.

As I head for my door, I hear a voice. "Rae, hi!" It's Dillon. He runs up to me and smiles one of his smiles. I tuck a small curl of hair behind my ear. "What's up? I hear you and Isabel trained in sword fighting today." I wonder who told him. Probably Isabel or Matt. Arkarian might have.

"Not much, how about you?" I respond to his question. He sits on our little swing out front. I sit in the chair next to it.

"Hardly anything. Just on the lookout for those dogs, you know?" I nod. I've heard a lot about the dogs from Isabel. She told me what they look like, and how to battle them. She told me to hold them off with my dagger and call Matt or Arkarian with my thoughts. Dillon touches my arm. "Did you see them at all?" I shake my head. I haven't seen them, but I would be able to recognize them anywhere. Dillon smiles, his green eyes shining like little green suns. "Then you're safe for now. Want to go for a walk? It's a beautiful evening." I'm really tired, but Dillon seems to want to take a walk with me. I really like him, so I nod and smile. He smiles from ear to ear, like a six-year-old with free access to a candy store. I go in to tell Tim where I'm going. He frowns a little, but nods and goes back to watching his favorite movie.

As Dillon and I walk through town, I get the feeling we're being watched. Dillon is also looking around to see who's watching us. "If only Isabel were here, she would be able to see who is watching us." He comments. I nod in agreement. Dillon closes his eyes, and in about 20 seconds Isabel joins us.

"Matt told me that you guys wanted me to come to watch out for whatever is watching you." Dillon and I nod, and we head for a trail in the woods. Isabel doesn't seem to want to go. I wonder why?

"Isabel, is there something bad here?" I ask. She stops for a moment, and shakes her head. She frowns and motions for us to go on ahead. I run ahead of them. It's so beautiful here! The trees covered in snow, icicles hanging from the bare branches. It looks like a world of crystal.

Then I see the dogs. Seven large Great Danes, just like Isabel warned. They run towards me. I scream and run towards Isabel and Dillon, the dogs centimeteres behind me. I feel one bite my leg, but I keep running. I try to get my fingers burning as I do so. To my relief, smoke, and soon fire, start spraying out of my hands. I aim it back at the dogs, and they howl in pain, but keep chasing me. Dillon suddenly appears, and jumps between me and the dogs. He throws them away, but they keep on coming. He's badly injured, and is losing. I notice my hands are still smoking, and aim them towards the dogs. Sparks, and then rivers of fire, shoot out of my hands toward the pack, hitting them head on. They howl in immense pain, and run off, whimpering. Isabel looks from me to Dillon, and runs over to help him first. He's hurt badly. He's got bites to his chest, arms, legs, neck, everywhere. Isabel puts her hands on his chest and doesn't speak for a few minutes. Eventually, he's fully healed, and smiles at Isabel.

"Now it's your turn. Where are you hurt?" I point to my leg, and see a giant chunk missing. It looks in a bad way. Isabel notices too, and grimaces. She puts her hands on my leg near the bite, and I feel a gentle probing in my leg. It's a good feeling, and I feel my leg starting to heal.

"That tickles." I laugh. Isabel smiles and keeps her hands on my leg. In about five minutes, my leg is fully healed. It's amazing how well she can heal. There's not even a scratch left where I used to have a large hole. "Thank you so much, I don't know where I'd be without you." I then notice the forest is on fire. We start throwing snow on the flames, and soon the fire is out. My fingers have a little bit of steam coming out of them. Isabel and Dillon stare at my hands.

"I haven't seen hands that could do anything that cool since Rochelle." Dillon says to me. Isabel nods in agreement. "Rochelle didn't quite get control of her hands. They stung and always had colourful sparks flying out of them. She had to wear gloves that looked like skin so nobody would notice. With her hands, she could see into our souls. It creeped us out, and we kind of treated her unfairly." He frowns at this. He obviously feels bad about something, but I'm not going to bring it up.

"That was what I saw in my vision." Isabel says. "I had a feeling coming into the woods was a bad idea, but I know I couldn't avoid it. I'm just happy I could be there to heal you." I nod, and thank her again. She's obviously tired, so I suggest we all go home and get some rest. The others nod. Dillon walks me home and uses his wings to go to his house. I go into my room and don't even bother washing the blood off of my jeans. They have a huge hole in them now. They were my favorites too. I throw them in the trash and take a shower. I plait my hair and head out to say goodnight to Tim.

He seems concerned. "I saw your jeans, what happened?" I know that I'm going to have to answer his question, but I don't have an answer.

"A dog tore a hole in my jeans." I answer. I hope he didn't see the blood. He frowns, like he knows I'm not telling the whole truth. But then he shrugs; he's not going to ask me about it. I say goodnight and head to my bedroom to sleep. Though I doubt I'll be able to go to sleep easily. I have too many things on my mind. The dogs, the Guard, everything. It was scary, but it was fun too. I guess I'll really enjoy this new job.

When I wake up, I see Tim looking me oddly. "It's 10:00 am, and I've been trying to wake you up for hours! What were you doing that exhausted you so much? You rarely sleep to your alarm, but today you slept right through it!" I shrug. After all, I can't tell him. When he looks at me with those big brown eyes of his, I feel horrible about hiding it, but I know there's nothing that can be done. I quickly change into jeans and a sweatshirt with a t-shirt underneath, and run a brush through my hair. I run out of my room, right into Isabel.

"Sorry I slept in, and sorry for running into you." I say. She smiles. She's obviously amused, which is good. She won't be too mad at me.

"Don't worry about it." She laughs. "How is your leg?" I look down at where I was bit last night. When I put my jeans on this morning, I had forgotten all about it.

"It's better now, thanks." She nods, and looks outside. Suddenly, she falls to the floor and starts shaking violently and screaming. I wonder what's wrong.

"Isabel! Isabel, what's wrong?" I ask. She takes a staggering breath, and lifts one hand. She is a lot more calm now. Even though she still seems distraught, she's breathing normally again. She looks up at me.

"Can I talk to you in private?" She looks at my brother. I nod, and lead her up to my bedroom. She sits on my bed and I stand next to it.

"I had a vision. These horrible creatures from the underworld, called wren, were attacking the school. People were being attacked, and I even think one person might have been badly injured!" She shakes all over again, and continues. "They were attacking everyone. Then I saw fire, lots of fire. Blue fire. It was really hot. The wren screamed and ran away. Then I saw..." I look at her, but she quickly looks away. She doesn't want to tell me, but I know I should know. I have a feeling it pertains to me somehow. She looks back, and takes a deep breath. "I saw Dillon lying in a heap on the floor. I was trying to heal him, but he was burned and scratched. I don't know if he'll be OK." I gasp. _Not Dillon! He's the nicest person I know, and I don't know how I could possibly live without him!_ I look at Isabel, and she's as scared as I am.

"Members of the Order who defect don't seem to live as long as members who started out in the guard. I hope that's not true." She says. I wonder how scared I look right now. Isabel breathes a deep breath, and looks at me again. "We'd better start training your hands now. They will be of so much use in 1302. Though people are afraid of anything that looks even slightly like magic, so you'll have to be inconspicuous." I nod, and we start training. I wonder if what happened last night was another fluke, or if I'm starting to get control over this skill. Isabel's right about it being really useful. I won't be stuck frozen on a mountain anymore.

We go to her house, and she pulls out a few candles. She nods toward them. "Ignite the wicks." She says. I frown, but give it a shot. I hold my fingers above the wicks, and, using visualization, will the candles to light. I open one eye to see if it worked, but the candles are just sitting there. I frown again, but keep trying. I try this a few more times with nothing happening. I start to get really frustrated.

"Your eyes are turning pink!" Isabel says. _So? These candles won't light! I'm so mad I could just..._ Then I stare at the candles. They have ignited into small orange flames, twirling and dancing. I smile. "It's a good start." Isabel mentions. I nod.It's about time things started going my way! The flames suddenly jump with this thought. They turn white for a second, and then shrink back down and turn yellow. Isabel's eyes grow really wide. _I hadn't noticed my fingers had been in the flame!_ I pull my hand away and look at it. My hand is perfectly fine. _This is awesome!_ I think to myself.

"Wow, it looks like your emotions helped you this time, just like they did with me." Isabel says. "We still have a lot more training though." I nod, put the candles out, and close my eyes and concentrate again. I sit there for a long time before the flames start again. By noon, I can light the flames in about five minutes' worth of thinking. Isabel has gotten used to my keeping my fingers in the flame. They tingle slightly, but don't hurt.

"Good, but not good enough to save the world. We'll practice more later." I hear a knock on my door, and a few seconds later Tim comes in.

"Rae, I'm going to go hang out with a few of my new friends now, ok?" I nod and he smiles and tears out of the house. I'm happy he has friends now. Before recently, he was also like me. He had a couple of friends, and I envied him for that. Now, I realize that not having any friends made it so that I don't miss my old home as much as I would. If I had to move now, I would miss my new friends dearly.

"So, what should we do now?" Isabel asks. I look at the younger girl for a moment, then decide on something I want to know.

"So, tell me more about the Guard and all the stuff we'll be doing." She nods and goes into this lengthy speach about powers and time traveling, and stuff like that. It takes her about an hour to cover everything about the Guard, and her history. She asks if I would like to know about other people histories in the Guard, and I shake my head.

"Well then, can I at least tell you about the people who have died in the Guard?" I start to respond when I hear a door open somewhere in the house. I also hear voices.

"Rae, are you home?" A somewhat familiar voice asks. It's my mum. It's about time my parents got back from, where was it? America? Or was it Greece?

"Yea Mum, I'm in my room. I have a friend over!" I hear my parents climbing the stairs and soon the door opens. Mum comes in first. She looks realy tired. Dad doesn't look much better.

"So how was your trip?" I ask them. Mum shrugs and leaves Dad to tell me about it. Somehow, I think that it was not their best trip ever.

"Well, let's just say we didn't the funding we needed for the company in France." So it was France they went to. They left shortly after we moved in. Mum had left me enough money to last a month if we needed it, including taxes and such. "We're going to Italy next week. What have you been up to in school, Rae? And who's your friend?" She looks at Isabel.

"Well, school's been great. I'm doing well in my classes, and Isabel's been helping me with history work. She gets straight A's. I've made quite a few friends already, and so has Tim. He went out with them a little while ago." I look at the clock, and realize it's almost three. "Ok, so maybe a few hours ago, but he's out having fun." I haven't met his friends, but he's met mine. "We got to meet some dogs, and I ripped my favorite jeans. The ones from grandma." My grandmother is a wealthy lady who lives in England and often sends me awesome gifts, the height of fashon. In England, anyway. In Australia, they kinda stick out though. I love them anyways. "Plus, I got to help put out a forest fire. A small one." I hold my fingers about a centimetre apart, and she nods. "And now I get to learn about England in the 1300's. That way I can talk to Grandma more about it than I ever could before."

Mum nods, and says "I'll tell your Grandma to send another pair of jeans right away." Even though she spends a lot of time away from home, she still cares about me and wants me to be happy. She pulls out a cell phone and calls Grandma. "Hi. This is Janet. Yea, Rae ripped her jeans, and wants you to send another pair. The weekend of the 30th? Ok, I'll tell her. Love you too Mum, bye." She looks at me. "Your Gradma will be stopping by the weekend of the 30th to visit. She says she's bringing you a gift." Oh, a gift! Isabel, however seems distrurbed. I wonder why? She looks at me for a second, and notices my confused expression.

"Pardon me, Mrs. Garrows, but can Rae and I have a moment to talk about something secret?" Mum nods and leaves the room. "Rae, the weekend of the 30th is the weekend of your first mission! We'll need to spend all the time possible training!" I realize this and am crushed. I realy love my grandma, and is history that important? Then I remember that leaving her may be the only way to save her, and myself.


End file.
